Introduction into Lebanon Politics

From earliest times, Lebanon was a center of trade for both the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The Phoenicians operated trade routes even before the rise of Cyrus the Great. The area of Lebanon became a hub of Middle East trading, and especially banking, under the Romans, Crusaders, Hellenistic times, the Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire, and through the French colonial period.

From 1920 to 1944, it was under the French Mandate, and became independent on November 22, 1944. Since independence it has had a parliamentary democracy, but one uniquely based on a “confessional” agreement that allocates the top positions of the state (president, prime minister, and speaker of Parliament) by religious affiliation. 

Since independence, the country has had an unstable political situation, and has had two civil wars, one in 1958, and a fifteen-year-long civil war from 1975 to 1990. It has also been the scene of numerous foreign intrusions by Syria and Israel. Syria ended its military presence in Lebanon in 2005; Israel still occupies some minor areas along the Lebanon-Israel border.

A tectonic development in Lebanon’s political history began with the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005. This resulted in huge demonstrations on March 8th (Hezbollah and its allies) and counter-demonstrations on March 14th 2005, primarily by moderate anti-Syrian elements.

These events are commonly called Lebanon’s “Cedar Revolution,” and these two dates continue to provide the names of the major political movements in the country, namely, the March 8th Alliance, and the March 14th Coalition.

These historical elements determine the basic character of the country. Its long history of trading and banking still today make banking and finance the largest sector of its economy. The numerous conquerors who have swept over the country give it a patchwork of different religions and cultural styles.

In a country where “everyone is a minority,”

it fostered a unique “confessional” type

of constitutional arrangement

where the three main religions

agree to share power.

Its French colonial period bequeathed a free market economy. Thus, despite its recent checkered political history, Lebanon is probably the freest secular democracy in the region, with a very well exercised freedom of speech. For this reason, it is the headquarters of more media organizations than any other country in the Middle East.